Archive for September, 2008

On September 11th we took Sophie to the doctor for her 6 month old checkup. As many of you might recall, Sophie had a few issues with her size back in the early days. Well now she weighs 14.5 pounds (25th percentile) and is 26.5 inches long (75th percentile!) The doctor said everything looked great and she had no concerns. Sophie even went to her and let her poke and prod her without crying or complaining. So everything was good and everyone was happy – and then out came the needle! Yes, four more shots, and four more looks of betrayal – “How could you let them do this to me!?!” But after a few minutes Sophie calmed right down (it took Debbie a little longer) and was great the rest of the day.

To celebrate all our good news, we went for a walk down to the park. Here’s Sophie in her cool pink velour track suit, hanging out in front of our house before our walk:

Of course we took the Bob stroller. Here are Debbie and Sophie at the park entrance with Black Mountain in the background:

We put Sophie into the infant swing and gave her a few pushes. She really liked it.

After that it was off to the bouncy frog (I think it was a frog?)

Then a quick trip down the slide,

followed by a climb across the monkey bars,

then a quick climb up the rock wall,

and finally another trip down the slide with Dad.

After all that working out Sophie was exhausted and went to sleep with her froggy friend, and then she slept the whole way home.

Our little half-pint turned half-a-year old on September 8th. To celebrate we broke out the bouncy seat and let her jump around all day.

I still find it amazing that she is six months old. It seems like just yesterday she weighed less than six pounds and we were feeding her through a little tube. Next thing you know it’s off to college!

On September 7th we met up with Debbie’s friend Sharon. (She and Debbie used to work together in Germany, and Sharon has just moved back to Colorado.) She was in town for a wedding on Saturday, but she had some free time on Sunday morning so we met her down in Point Loma for breakfast.

Here’s a picture of Sharon getting to meet Sophie for the first time:

And here’s a group photo of us at the restaurant:

After breakfast, Debbie, Sophie and Sharon went down to Cabrillo National Monument to play tourist until Sharon’s flight took off.

Going back in time one day, we had dinner at Niki and Rick’s on Saturday. We hadn’t planned anything but we both wound up with no plans, so we invited ourselves over for dinner. Not too many exciting pictures, but for those of you who haven’t been paying attention, here’s one showing how Courtney has suddenly turned into and adult! (Don’t worry, we won’t let that happen to Sophie)

Here are a few random pictures from this week’s swim class. None of Sophie because I can’t swim and take pictures at the same time, but here are some of our classmates:

And after we got home from class Sophie was still a little damp, so we threw her in the dryer to dry her out. (Don’t worry, we used the permanent press cycle!)

Here’s a nice picture of Sophie and Kona hanging out together:

And here I am teaching Sophie how to do the blog. Another couple of weeks and she’ll be doing all of the posts.

On Wednesday our friend Shannon and her daughter Julia came over to go swimming and have dinner. We let Julia use Sophie’s high chair and put Sophie in the Bumbo.

Julia is about 6 months older than Sophie, so it was a bit eye opening for us to have her running around the house. It showed us we have quite a bit of child-proofing to do before Sophie figures out how to walk.

Finally, here’s a picture of Kona, since she doesn’t get much attention these days. She has been great with Sophie so far, but I’m afraid once Sophie can walk she’s going to terrorize the poor kitty.

On Friday, September 5th, we started the day over at Elizabeth and Joe’s house for a Sing and Play session.

Maybe I should back up and explain how this came to be. Debbie used to go to a breast feeding support group every Friday. Well, as the kids have gotten older many people have felt less of a need to go to the support group, but still wanted to get together socially. And since my beautiful wife has an unparalleled knowledge of kids songs and activities, they elected her to lead the group. So Elizabeth volunteered her house and about 15 moms and their kids swarmed in to learn some new songs, a little sign language and some arts and crafts. (Joe and I made our escape to Phil’s BBQ for lunch. We didn’t want to be in the way. Yeah, that’s it.)

So here’s a picture of the group (and that’s not even everyone who was there:

After the sing and play, some of us headed out to La Jolla to have a little bbq at the beach. Here are some pictures of us hanging out:

Sophie can finally stay sitting up for extended periods, so I decided to have a little photo session:

Ok, so their topless. It was an artistic choice. (And I’m sure she’ll love it when I show them to her prom date in about 17 years!) Nicholas wanted to get in on the action too:

And to top off the day Sophie got to go into the ocean for the first time. She seemed to really enjoy the sand and the waves:

Now that I’ve got some free time on my hands, we decided to sign Sophie up for swimming lessons. (Although at this age it’s more like dunking lessons. We go every Tuesday afternoon to the pool in the rehab center at a local hospital. They keep the water at about 90+ degrees, so it’s not exactly refreshing. But they teach the kids how to float on their backs, how to kick and swim, and how to crawl out of the pool if the fall in. And of course sing lots of songs.

On Labor Day (ok, technically it was Sunday night) our friends Patty and Warren had a few folks over to celebrate. (You remember Patty and Warren, right? From the Fair? And the Zoo?) And yes, I appreciate the irony of celebrating Labor Day when one doesn’t have a job. (And don’t get me started on the definition of irony. Grrrrr!)

Anyways….we had fun chowing down on some bbq and just hanging out. I didn’t take a lot of photos, but did get some cute shots of the kids.